What’s Tony Drinking? Italian Gin, Irish Whiskey, A Legendary Tequila & One Really Good Cocktail

Drinking Italian Gin in Italy 10/10, Recommended

What better way to really experience a gin than to travel to where the botanicals are sourced? Especially if that place is an insanely picturesque Ligurian city on the rocky shores of the Mediterranean. So that’s exactly what I did, thanks to the good folks at Portofino Dry Gin, named after the place where it’s made. If you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone — it’s becoming a big hit in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, but just made its debut in a few select parts of the US last year. The brand was founded by a pair of gents who I like to think of as carefree Italian playboys, but they actually have a bunch of degrees and held down a number of prestigious jobs before being seduced by the siren song of gin (and one of them isn’t a native Italian, but I’ll forgive him for that). The family of founding partner Ruggero Raymo owns an estate in the hills of Portofino from where many of the 21 botanicals that go into the gin are grown (everything that goes into it is locally sourced). It’s an absolutely beautiful gin, hitting the tongue with bright lemony citric notes that give way to juniper mid-palate, culminating in a dry and herbaceous finish. Deliciousness in three acts! And one of the best looking bottles in all of gin-dom to boot.  We got to taste it in myriad forms during our all-too-brief stay, as whipped up by master barman Paolo Gastaldo of the DaV Mare Bar in the Splendido Mare hotel. When in Portofino… be sure to hit up Paolo for a Negroni La Vela (Portofino, Campari, Amaro Carnatti and a locally-made pine nut vermouth, which is sadly unavailable Stateside.

Silver Foxes and Purple Muscat

It was one of the most hotly anticipated moments of the year in the spirits industry. Of course, I’m talking about the reunion of the famed “Silver Foxes” booze-writing tandem, the great Robert Haynes-Peterson and yours truly. After almost a decade of our well-coiffed gray manes being a ubiquitous presence at drinks events around NYC, Robert decamped for the Pacific Northwest, and I was left to soldier on solo in New York. We kept in touch via text, of course, and together we “attended” some of the numerous Zoom tastings that blossomed in the Covid era. But we hadn’t actually imbibed in the same place together since 2018. That situation was rectified at 10 AM on a beautiful autumn morning, when we got together and boozed it up al fresco on a terrace overlooking the South Street Seaport, courtesy of Teeling Irish Whiskey. Teeling’s master distiller, the very tall (and also gray-haired) Alex Chasko, was on hand to guide us through a tasting of much of the Teeling line. Their newly released 32 Year Old Purple Muscat Finish was pretty fantastic, and less fruity than I’d expected — it’s a good example of how Teeling isn’t beholden to traditional styles and methods when it comes to making their stuff.  Heck, Alex isn’t even Irish! But the man knows how to make good whiskey. My favorite was the Chinkapin Oak “Wonders Of Wood” expression, aged entirely in the rarely used oak which imparts a dry, almost grassy note to the whiskey. Delicious! As was the company. Robert had to dash immediately after, but any meeting of the minds — and livers — with my fellow Silver Fox is a gas and a half, no matter how short.

A Legendary Tequila Made More Legendary by a Legendary Bourbon

In an age where many a tequila brand can measure its age in months, getting to 85 years — as El Tesoro did this year — is a pretty big deal. Tequiliero Carlos Camarena and his younger sister, operations director Jenny Camarena, certainly thought so. In fact they’ve been planning for the big 8-5 with something special that’s been a few years in the making. Their limited edition 85th Anniversary Extra Añejo expression was finished for a minimum of 36 months in casks that had formerly held Booker’s Bourbon’s legendary 30th Anniversary Edition. So let’s see… 85 years plus 36 months plus 30 years is, um, where’s my abacus… that’s a lot of years. And a whole lot of delicious, too. It has its share of vanilla, but it’s less sweet than you’d expect from a bourbon barrel finish, with a beautiful minerality and a fascinating salinity that I did not expect. I also didn’t expect to taste it — along with sharing an entire fancy-shmancy dinner at lower Manhattan’s Crown Shy, accompanied by lots of El Tesoro expressions — sitting across from the great Carlos Camarena himself, along with some of the finest boozy scribes in the NY Metro area. The combination of the man and his tequila was, um, intoxicating. And, alas, off the record. But a lot of fun.

Ok, It Was Only One Cocktail…But It Was a Really Good One

I went to Milady’s on the corner of Prince & Thompson in NYC’s SoHo a few times over the years, and don’t really remember much about it — it closed its doors in 2014, after close to 70 years in business. But its reopening is a pretty big deal, as it’s the latest venture for the tavern titan Julie Reiner — the woman behind the wonderful and much-missed Flatiron Lounge, a partner in the iconic Pegu Club, and owner of the still-kicking Clover Club in Brooklyn (and, of course, a judge on the Netflix show Drink Masters). So of course, I had to check it out. Problem was, I only had time for one drink before skedaddling, so I had to make it count. And I chose a good ‘un — the Hawaiian Iced Tea lived up to expectations and evoked memories of Ms. Reiner’s dearly departed tiki bar, Lani Kai. Pisco, lilikoi, tropical black tea, and… Grey Goose L’Orange? I’m not a Grey Goose guy at all, but if it makes a cocktail this splendid, I may have to reevaluate. The interior of the new Milady’s is totally new, and thankfully does NOT aim for faux dive bar-ness, but it’s clean and unpretentious and a fun place to spend an evening. Which I shall certainly do. I swear.